The Two Fishermen

W. Somerset Maugham was, according to many accounts, the most widely read novelist since Charles Dickens. I first became interested in Maugham in the 1980’s when I was taking a film class with artist Janet Echelman at Harvard. As Janet mentions in her interview with me (click …

Editor’s Note on the Reflective Narrative The following is a story based upon the tradition of Classical Sanskrit folklore and mythology. The story is told by utilizing the ancient Indian storytelling technique of the responsive or reflective narrative, beginning with a venerated tale or myth. The …

by Karim Introduction by Kim Maha Akhtar One of the most wonderful aspects about mythology and the stories that have come to us from the ancient world and classical times is their ability to transport us back in time. I have always been fascinated by such …

Richard Gombrich was born in London in 1937. His father, Ernst Gombrich, moved to England from Vienna in late 1935. He was an historian whose book - The Story of Art, has been translated into more than 30 languages and made the family fortune. He died in …

I was born in Warsaw, I have always lived in Warsaw, in the same tenement, three minutes walk from the University of Warsaw where I have been doing research and teaching for more than 20 years. Parents of my father were professsors at the University, parents …

Non-violence requires much more courage than violence. – Cesar Chavez Frugalis in Latin means “frugal” and satyāgraha in Sanskrit means “insistence on truth” (Satyā means “truth” and Agraha means ”insistence”), often as it related to civil disobedience or non-violent resistance. For Mahatma Gandhi, the ultimate symbol of frugalis was the khādī, …

Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD is Honorary Associate Professor and Research Fellow in Philosophy at Deakin University, and Honorary Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia; Visiting Professor and Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley. He has held fellowships in Oxford, Harvard, Emory and Shimla Universities. His research and …

by Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD Gandhi was one of the twentieth century’s foremost savants who was influenced by Jaina ethics. The background was of course also the millennium-long development of ahimsa that crystallized in the Buddhist values of non-violence, generosity (dana), forbearance, loving-kindness (metta), and most significantly, compassion, (karuna) …

“I think it is a very good idea.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi (when asked what he thought of Western Civilization) by Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD Gandhi strongly resisted the equation of modernization and westernization. Much as Gandhi admired aspects of Western modernity — its scientific temper, its pragmatism, efficient …

by Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD Gandhi initially adopted a form of non-cooperation, which was echoed in the works of Tolstoy, Henry Thoreau and reinforced by his Quaker friends in South Africa. The ideas of M.K. Gandhi, or Mahatma Gandhi as he is popularly known, are all but forgotten in India; …